Goat's Milk May Be Bought For
Three-Pence The Quart.
Plenty of hens may be had, at the rate of five
for a dollar, or about twelve-pence each.
In the whole island there are
not above two or three small horses of the Arab breed, and a few camels.
At Delisha they take great quantities of lobsters and other good fish.
A few cotton plants are found growing on the strand; where likewise
there grows among the stones a shrubby plant, having large thick round
green leaves, as big as a shilling, with a fruit like capers, of which
it is a kind, called eschuc, and is eaten in sallads. Oranges are
scarce and dear. There is very fine sweet bazil. On the shore, many fine
shells are found, mixed with cuttle-fish bones, and vast quantities of
pearl-oyster shells, which the people say are driven thither by the
winds and waves, as no pearl-oysters are to be found here-about. The
people are very poor, and rank beggars, who buy what they are able and
beg all they can get, yet are honest and give civil usage. Their best
entertainment is a china dish of coho, a black bitterish drink, made
of a berry like that of the bay tree, which is brought from Mecca. This
drink is sipped hot, and is good for the head and stomach.[216]
[Footnote 215: The Civet, or Vierra Civetta of naturalists, is an animal
somewhat allied to the weazel; but the genus is peculiarly distinguished
by an orifice or folicle beneath the anus, containing an unctuous
odorant matter, highly fetid in most of the species; but in this and the
Zibet the produce is a rich perfume, much esteemed in the east. - E.]
[Footnote 216: This Coho of Finch is evidently coffee. - E.]
At our first landing in Socotora, the people all fled from us for fear
into the mountains, having formerly received injurious treatment from
the Portuguese, who they said had carried off some of them forcibly.
Their town which they left, is all built of stone covered with spars and
palm branches, with wooden doors, and very ingenious wooden locks. Near
the sea-side stands their church, enclosed by a wall like that of a
church-yard, having within a couple of crosses and an altar, on which
lay frankincense, with sweet wood and gums. When we first got speech of
them, they pretended this was Abba del Curia, and not Socotora, which
we afterwards found to be false. We walked up two or three miles into
the country, not seeing a single pile of green grass, but many date
trees. We saw one other very strange tree or plant, something more than
the height of a man, very thick at the root, and tapering upwards almost
to a point. The trunk was very smooth and without bark, and near the top
some long branches without leaves, bearing reddish flowers, which change
afterwards to a fruit not unlike the date in form and size, which is at
first green. It contains many small whitish kernels, which as well as
the branches are very bitter, and full of a resinous substance. We also
saw another church having a cross on its top.[217]
[Footnote 217: Of this church and the whole island, see the voyage of
Juan de Castro. For, in times past, the natives were Christians; which,
as all others not of their faith, the Mahometans call cafrs. Being
rude and brutish, they were the easier prey to the Arabs. - Purch.]
Sec. 3. Occurrences in India, respecting the English, Dutch, Portuguese,
and Moguls.
The 28th August, 1608, Captain Hawkins with the merchants and some
others landed at Surat. He was received into a coach and carried before
the dawne, [or dewan.] We had very poor lodgings allotted to us, being
only the porter's lodge of the custom-house; where next morning the
customers came and tumbled about our trunks to our great displeasure,
though we had only brought our necessaries on shore. We were invited to
dinner by a merchant, who gave us good chear, but we had sour sauce to
our banquet, for he was the person who had sustained almost the whole
loss in the ship taken by Sir Edward Michelburne. The captain also of
that ship dined with us. When that affair was told us, our captain said
he had never heard of any such matter, and supposed it must have been
done by a Hollander; but they affirmed it was to their certain knowledge
an English ship, and deplored their hard fortunes, affirming there were
thieves of all nations, yet they were not disposed to impute that fault
to honest merchants. This liberal sentiment somewhat revived us; and we
were invited the day after to supper by Mede Colee, the captain of
that ship.
The 2d October we embarked our goods and provisions, gave a present to
Schekh Abdel-reheime, and got a dispatch for our departure; but the
customers refused a licence till they should search our ship, yet
meeting with some frigates in their own river, which they supposed to be
Malabars, they durst not venture down to our ship. These frigates
[grabs] were Portuguese, who desired that no one should come to talk
with them; yet Mr Buck rashly went on board and was detained.[218]
[Footnote 218: At this place is given a confused relation of several
incidents at Surat, obviously garbled and abbreviated by Purchas, so as
to be difficultly intelligible. As these are already contained in the
journal of Hawkins, they are here omitted. - E.]
At this time I was ill of the bloody flux, of which Mr Dorchester died,
but I was cured under God by an Englishman, named Careless.[219] From
him I learnt many things respecting India; and particularly of the great
spoil done by the Hollanders to the Portugals at Malacca the last year.
The Hollanders were lying before Malacca with sixteen ships, besieging
that place by sea and land, in conjunction with several native kings,
when news were sent to the Portuguese viceroy, then before Acheen with
all the gallants of India, having with him a very great fleet of ships,
gallies, and frigates, with 4000 soldiers, having been commanded to
conquer Acheen and to build a castle there, and afterwards to plunder
Johor, and to chastise the Moluccas for trading with the Hollanders.
Upon notice from Andrea Hurtado, who then commanded at Malacca, of the
distress to which that place was reduced, the viceroy set sail from
Acheen to attack the Hollanders.
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